Islamic State cements grip on the Iraqi-Syrian border – Jihadists now control roughly half of Syria

Sally

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Mar 22, 2012
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It looks like it will take ground troops from many nations to stop ISIS.


Islamic State cements grip on the Iraqi-Syrian border – Jihadists now control roughly half of Syria

DAMASCUS: The Islamic State group consolidated its control of the Iraq-Syria border yesterday after capturing an Iraqi provincial capital and a famed Syrian heritage site in an offensive that has forced a review of US strategy. The jihadists, who now control roughly half of Syria, reinforced their self-declared transfrontier "caliphate" by seizing Syria's Al-Tanaf crossing on the Damascus-Baghdad highway late Thursday.

It was the last regime-held border crossing with Iraq. Except for a short section of frontier in the north under Kurdish control, all the rest are now held by IS. The jihadist surge, which has also seen it take Anbar capital Ramadi and the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in the past week, comes despite eight months of US-led air strikes. It has sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians in both countries and raised fears IS will repeat at Palmyra the destruction it has already wreaked at ancient sites in Iraq's Nimrud and Mosul. The United Nations said yesterday at least 55,000 people had fled Ramadi alone since mid-May.

President Barack Obama has played down the IS advance as a tactical "setback" and denied the US-led coalition was "losing" to IS. But French President Francois Hollande said the world must act to stop the extremists. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called the 1st and 2nd Century ruins "the birthplace of human civilization", adding: "It belongs to the whole of humanity and I think everyone today should be worried about what is happening." In Palmyra, at a strategic crossroads between Damascus and the Iraqi border to the east, IS executed at least 17 suspected loyalists of the Damascus government Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Continue reading at:

Islamic State cements grip on the Iraqi-Syrian border - Jihadists now control roughly half of Syria - Kuwait Times Kuwait Times?
 
It looks like it will take ground troops from many nations to stop ISIS.


Islamic State cements grip on the Iraqi-Syrian border – Jihadists now control roughly half of Syria

DAMASCUS: The Islamic State group consolidated its control of the Iraq-Syria border yesterday after capturing an Iraqi provincial capital and a famed Syrian heritage site in an offensive that has forced a review of US strategy. The jihadists, who now control roughly half of Syria, reinforced their self-declared transfrontier "caliphate" by seizing Syria's Al-Tanaf crossing on the Damascus-Baghdad highway late Thursday.

It was the last regime-held border crossing with Iraq. Except for a short section of frontier in the north under Kurdish control, all the rest are now held by IS. The jihadist surge, which has also seen it take Anbar capital Ramadi and the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in the past week, comes despite eight months of US-led air strikes. It has sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians in both countries and raised fears IS will repeat at Palmyra the destruction it has already wreaked at ancient sites in Iraq's Nimrud and Mosul. The United Nations said yesterday at least 55,000 people had fled Ramadi alone since mid-May.

President Barack Obama has played down the IS advance as a tactical "setback" and denied the US-led coalition was "losing" to IS. But French President Francois Hollande said the world must act to stop the extremists. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called the 1st and 2nd Century ruins "the birthplace of human civilization", adding: "It belongs to the whole of humanity and I think everyone today should be worried about what is happening." In Palmyra, at a strategic crossroads between Damascus and the Iraqi border to the east, IS executed at least 17 suspected loyalists of the Damascus government Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Continue reading at:

Islamic State cements grip on the Iraqi-Syrian border - Jihadists now control roughly half of Syria - Kuwait Times Kuwait Times?
Oy vey!! .... :cool:
 

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